Another Coffee Pruning Video

I've learned how to embed YouTube videos in posts, so that makes my life a lot easier.

OK, here's another short video, with Maria Ruiz explaining the rationale behind coffee pruning--in Spanish!  She talks slowly and clearly, so check out your Spanish comprehension.

Ok, ok, I've been told I'd better provide a translation.  Basically what she's saying is that they prune to get rid of branches that aren't productive and to fortify the plant against the rainy season.  She shows this year's pruning cut--the light-colored one, and last year's, as well as one that's 5 years old.  She talks about slanting the cut so that the rain will run off and not soak in to the stump.  and finally she points to a feature of the prune where there's a little bit of bark showing up from the prune, saying that they want to avoid damage to the bark and thus to the plant itself.

When I say she's talking slowly, all things are relative.  I've heard her when she's talking with other Panamanians and believe me, in the video, she's SLOW.

Coffee Pruning Video

Sundays are usually days off; today, I made good on a promise to myself that I would work on video footage I have, some of it dating back to this time last year on my trip to the Brasilian Amazon.  I've uploaded with this post a little movie I made of workers on the Ruiz coffee farm near Boquete pruning the trees.  I haven't done anything with sound; you hear the pruners and birds in the background, which I thought were far better than anything I could do artificially.

I have some other videos of the pruning operation that I'll post separately.

The quality isn't going to be all that good because I have to compress to lower resolution--uploading large files is risky, given our situation.  but it's good enough, I think, to give you an idea.

Coffee Pruning, Part 2

I'm not certain if this is just a feature of the tropics or is due to some other factor, but what I've noticed with our citrus trees, particularly with our lime, is that there is no distinct period of bloom with an equally distinct fruiting period, leading to harvest. At least with our lime, flowering and fruiting, while not quite continuous, are over a very broad period of time, which means we get an almost year-round production of limes.

The same seems to be true, in a more limited sense, with coffee plants. The previous post had pictures of what seemed to me, at first glance, like plants in full bloom. Not so. The plants are already fruiting. And have been for some period of time. Fruit of different size exist on the same branch, and will mature at different times.

The coffee bean develops inside the fruit. At maturity, the fruit turns an almost cherry red, and harvesting begins.

Harvesting is done by hand. Because of the difference in maturity dates, thanks to the long period of fruiting, there are basically two harvesting strategies--strip the plants of all the fruits, regardless of maturity or harvest over the two to three month period of time required for all the fruit to mature. Ruiz, like the other better producers, chooses the latter strategy.

I have to say that I'm pleased with this close up image (and I rarely if ever am satisfied with my camera work) if only because I caught (by sheer accident) a single flower among the fruit cluster. Every flower produces a fruit. The plants won't hold all the fruit, which is one reason for pruning--to strengthen the plant in order to reduce fruit drop.

I love the delicacy of the coffee flower.

I asked when the fruit would be ready to harvest, and was told that the largest would be ready in September, the smallest in December. At that point, processing of the beans takes place.

But for now, since pruning is just about over, the next step is clearing away the grasses and other underbrush in preparation for fertilizing the plants.

Which I hope to record soon.

Pruning Coffee, Part 1

There I was, heart in mouth, bouncing along in 4 wheel drive up a "road"--read rutted dirt track-- barely wide enough to accommodate the truck, with ditches or dropoffs on either side. Ahead of me, Maria Ruiz, 4th generation of Ruiz women who have been the driving force behind farming this land, in her massive SUV. Beside me, Domitillo, a Cafe Ruiz foreman, calmly chatting away about the farm, which is one in the Cafe Ruiz holdings. I had this feeling that, simply because I was an American who actually spoke Spanish, he had (totally unjustified) confidence in my driving ability under circumstances that would have given a goat pause. I am nothing if not a superb actress.

We finally got to the coffee area itself. I parked the truck, and Domitillo and I followed Maria into the row upon row of blooming coffee plants. What a spectacular sight! As I walked among the plants, I was struck with a jasmine-like (but more delicate) fragrance from the coffee flowers. It was hard to believe that this was a commercial operation whose end result was something as mundane as coffee.

Yet I already knew that the coffee that I reach for almost blindly in the morning is anything but a mundane agricultural product. Few are. Producing coffee is a year-long, complex process. If you visit Boquete, there are several tours of coffee farms and producers that you can take. I can't speak for the others, but I've gone on the Cafe Ruiz tour, and I guarantee you, it is fascinating. They not only raise the coffee, but like some of the other producers, they process the beans and put out the final product--the roasted bean, whether whole or ground, that you use to give yourself that inimitable morning boost.

From the time that we took the tour, I have been fascinated by the whole process; at heart, I'm a farmer. I finally asked Maria Ruiz if I could document the whole cycle, from beginning to end; it would mean a year-long effort that would involve video as well. She graciously gave me permission, which is why, on Friday morning at 7 am, I was walking among the rows of coffee plants, cameras dangling from my neck.

At this point in the yearly cycle, they are finishing up the pruning of the plants. They prune for all the usual reasons, but in addition, pruning helps to eliminate nonproductive or weak growth, which will strengthen the plant to deal with the rainy season. The difference is striking, as the pruned plant to the right shows.

Many of the farm workers are members of the indigenous tribe, the Ngobe Bugle, whose Comarca (semi-autonomous reservation) lies in Chiriquí. Many live in the towns and pueblos; a number hire themselves out as unskilled labor for a season then return to the Comaraca. Pruning is skilled labor, and this young man probably lives in Boquete or nearby.

Pruning is extremely labor intensive. When sold as a commodity, coffee, like other agricultural products, does not earn much. I think the latest figure I saw was that the most expensive Panamanian beans sold for $1.80/lb. That's right--just calculate the difference between that and the coffee you buy, and you figure out who's making the money. Cafe Ruiz sells both bulk coffee and the finished product. As with all such goods, the further along you are to the finished product, the more value that is added on and the more you can charge for the coffee.

Still, like other producers, the majority of Cafe Ruiz's sales is not in finished product. Maria told me that many countries have abandoned selective pruning because it's too expensive. No matter how cheap labor is, given the sheer quantity of plants, it's going to add considerably to your costs. Domitillo informed us that they started pruning at the end of January and were just finishing up that week. Cafe Ruiz continues to do it, because that is the way to maintain high-quality coffee; when you stop, the quality of the coffee goes down after a few years. Having grown fruit trees, I understand the necessity; the principle is the same.

More in another post.